Key figures: Year to 30 September 2016

State wide figures

  • The number of offences recorded by police in the year to 30 September 2016 was 543,315. This is up 11.6% from 487,017 offences recorded in the same period last year.
  • Family incidents increased in the year to 30 September 2016, up 8.9% from 72,375 to 78,819.
  • There were 176,595 offender incidents recorded in the year to 30 September 2016, up 11.7% from 158,142 in the year to 30 September 2015.
  • Victim reports increased by 15.4% in year ending 30 September 2016 to 333,214 victim reports. 73.4% (244,476) of these were person victims.

Offence trends

Between year ending September 2016 and 2015, the offence categories that showed a significant upward trend were:

  • Assault and related offences (up 12.6% from 37,974 to 42,754)
  • Robbery (up 21.5% from 2,522 to 3,063)
  • Dangerous and negligent acts endangering people (up 20.5% from 4,617 to 5,564)
  • Burglary/break and enter (up 13.7% from 47,678 to 54,219)
  • Theft (up 17.5% from 158,855 to 186,636)
  • Drug use and possession (up 5.4% from 22,547 to 23,768)
  • Public nuisance offences (up 21.8% from 2,825 to 3,442)
  • Justice procedures (up 75.3% from 7,808 to 13,689)
  • Breaches of orders (up 13.7% from 51,496 to 58,528). Note this increase is in part due to changes in legislation (please see the explanatory notes for information)
  • Transport regulation offences (up 45.6% from 463 to 674)

The major offence categories that showed a significant downward trend were:

  • Disorderly and offensive conduct (down 12.3% from 18,865 to 16,545)
  • Regulatory driving offences (down 53.3% from 30 to 14)
  • Other government regulatory offences (down 21.4% from 665 to 523)

Local Government Area level figures

The five Local Government Areas with the highest offence rates were:

  1. Melbourne (26,275.7 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 0.6%)
  2. Latrobe (19,171.1 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 6.0%)
  3. Yarra (15,485.0 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 9.3%)
  4. Horsham (14,467.5 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, down 2.8%)
  5. Greater Dandenong (13,079.1 offences per 100,000 estimated resident population, up 5.8%)

For a detailed breakdown of the data, click to view the crime statistics quarterly release

For a breakdown of offences at the LGA level, click to access the CSA crime by location tool

For explanatory information and definitions for the latest release, see the explanatory notes and glossary